In the latest episode of ‘life according to Roy’, the Liverpool manager has rewritten the playing careers of Dirk Kuyt, Ryan Babel and Nathan Eccleston.
The three players have all spent the majority of their careers as forwards and have spoke in the past at that being their preferred position, particularly Babel.
But according to their current manager, none of them are forwards and instead they are primarily wide players.
“A club like Liverpool shouldn’t have to rely on non-specialists like Dirk Kuyt or Ryan Babel “doing a job” up front when they are primarily wide players,” said Hodgson.
Back in September it was a different story when Hodgson discussed how he intended to use Babel primarily as a forward to deputise for Fernando Torres, a position Babel himself feels he is more naturally suited to.
Kuyt meanwhile spent the vast part of his career as a forward for Feyenoord before being converted into an attacking winger by previous manager Rafa Benitez, although was still frequently used as a forward also.
Hodgson continued “We have the same problem with the reserves. We don’t have any strikers and a winger called Nathan Eccleston has to play up front.”
Eccleston, who is described as a “fast striker” on the official website, has played most his young career as a forward too.
“In training, I can’t have practice games where each team plays a 4-4-2 because I don’t have the front players to do that.”
Liverpool, in addition to Torres, Kuyt, Babel and Eccleston, have David Ngog plus Milan Jovanovic and Daniel Pacheco who are also primarily forwards. Furthermore, Joe Cole was originally told he would be deployed centrally off the main forward.
Not to mention that almost every Liverpool supporter this season would have pointed to the main requirement for the manager being another forward. Hodgson didn’t sign one.
Roy said “There is more chance of a striker coming in this window because we had no money last time. Everything was so convoluted with the ownership issue.
“The first thing people say when I walk down the street is ‘We need a front player’. They can’t all be wrong and we aren’t that stupid either.”
It appears Roy will do whatever it takes to blame the previous manager – and anyone but himself – even completely rewriting the playing history of his current players.
Previous editions of Life according to Roy have featured the impressive performance in the 2-0 defeat to Everton, his failure to defend Torres after accusation from Ferguson, his failure to clearly issue a hands-off to questions linking Torres with Man United and calling Liverpool’s protesting supporters a “distraction”.
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